Going against a modified Ford GT is never a great idea when drag races are involved, but challenging it on a rolling start when you’re driving an electric car is an even worse idea.

Ok, we’ll give Tesla the kudos – the owners of the Model S luxury super sedan will have no problem overpowering supercars off the line when both cars go full throttle from a stand-still. The Internet is riddled with instances when the P85D and lately the mightier P90D tore apart respectable supercars because the driver of the latter car didn’t have the decency to go through school – anyone going heads up with the Tesla, do the math. First off, the ridiculously powered sedan has all the torque available from O (that’s a big ZERO) rpm and then the ridiculous “Ludicrous Mode” can also play into action to make the 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) time even smaller (like three seconds).

So, we got things set straight: go off the line and the Ford GT will lose every time. But things change when the equally mighty GT – which in this particular case has more than 700 HP to send to the rear wheels, turning out a 10.6 sec 1/4 mile at 133 mph time – and the Model S are pitted from a 2nd gear rolling start. We do see the reasoning in the competition between the two – the Model S represents the future, while the Ford GT is the glorious past. We’ll then have to wait and see if the coming generations of the GT will still retain the obsolete petrol engine under the hood.

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An impressive race. However, an electric motor has 100 percent of its torque at 0 rpm. An ICE powered vehicle will never match that. Also, electric motors are more than 90 percent efficient, and the internal combustion engine won’t match that either; not with the same kind of power. But the rolling start lets the petrol powered engine take advantage of its torque. Nothing new there. The internal combustion engine used in automobiles has had 100 years to develop. How long have electric cars had time to really develop? So who really “wins”? If battery technology, and electric motor technology had 100 years to develop and improve what would the result be? We’ll see, hopefully.